School division funding remains on par with recent years
By Peggy Revell on March 24, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell It’s fairly status quo for local education when it comes to announcements in the provincial budget. “We’re very thankful given the provincial deficit that they’ve continued to fund us, and we’re not seeing drastic cuts like we have in the past,” said Jerry Labossiere, secretary treasurer with SD 76. The budget pledges to fund enrolment growth — projected to be 2.2 per cent for the province — which means there is no freeze on the number of students the province will fund, said Labossiere. “But this is a fourth year of five years where the funding rate has been frozen, and it’s getting harder and harder to balance the budget with essentially frozen grants,” said Labossiere. “We’re seeing the cumulative effects — in that five-year time period we have had other cost pressures from suppliers and utilities and carbon taxes.” “So it’s getting tougher and tougher to balance our budget but, the good news is at least we didn’t see any rollbacks. The provincial budget included $2.2 billion for infrastructure over five years, covering the costs of 10 new schools and 12 modernizations announced Friday. The nearest recipients to the Hat are a replacement K-9 school in Tilley, and replacing the K-12 Ecole Le Ruisseau in Brooks. Locally, Connaught School remains on the “unfunded” list for the province, meaning it meets provincial criteria for a modernization, said Labossiere, but there’s no money yet. SD 76’s No. 1 infrastructure project is Connaught, which is more than 100 years old and “in much need of a modernization,” he said. The budget will also continue to fund a daily nutritious meal program for 30,000 students — a program that originally launched as a pilot in 2016-17 with 5,000 students. Funding for the nutrition program in SD 76 has been upped from $250,000 to $344,000 “We currently have this in three of our schools, so this will allow us to look at expanding that program for sure,” said Labossiere. One clawback in the budget is that of the provincial pension plan for non-certificated staff, said Labossiere, to the amount of $110,000. “The pension plan itself has made a decision to reduce the rate — they feel they can get by with less premiums.” 16
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